Playground Battles
Some of my favourite times in Shillong are the trips we go on with the students. It started in 2006, when we decided to make sightseeing more exciting by bringing a gang of ten year olds with us. And when 10 minutes into a 3 hour bus journey one guy started throwing up, it certainly did get interesting. Nowadays we stay closer to home, and out of buses. We walked to the local park with class I, one Saturday morning to go look at the animals. The park has monkeys, bears, deers, a domestic cat and lots of birds. But to the disappointment of many of them, no elephant. After I told them there was no elephant I had to stop one little fella who raced ahead of the group. I politely asked him why the hell he was running away and he said, “To find the elephant, Miss”. He was dealt an even greater blow when we went to the museum and found the skull of an elephant.
By now I think the people of Shillong are not far off getting a petition together to stop our field trips. When we look at the monkeys no-one else may look at the monkeys, if we’re teasing the deer, anyone else who comes close gets a 4 year old burrowing through their legs for a better view. The crowd really gets angry when we hit the swings. For two hours if anyone else would like to use a swing they have to wait and leap in the split second it takes one of our students to get on and another to plonk themselves on the seat. The see-saw in another sticky area. We tried to teach them about weight and gravity and all that but as that explanation consisted of, “You small, me fat”, they didn’t really get it. So for the duration of our stay all the on-lookers (and there were many) saw one big Irish girl get on a see-saw with a tiny Indian kid and there was non-stop banging until the Irish thighs could take no more.
As if these weren’t enough crimes against the day trippers, at lunch time we did as we always to at lunch. The class lined up in between the swings and the merry-go-round (another stronghold for us), girls on the right boys one the left, smallest at the front, tallest at the back. The mothers looked on as we led the children in a prayer (I once gave out food without praying first – students erupted – lesson learned). Some of the small ones forgot where they were and even gave us the “Good afternoon teachers” chant we usually get after lunch. With the formalities over we handed out the noddles and juice. The older boys in the school are now cooking and selling their food in the town, so we ordered lots of noodles from them. Some randomer people in the crowd tried to join the line to get in on the noodles but they were sent packing, we only serve cute class one students (and we only had enough for them).
Louise and Andrea spent a good chuck of their time working the crowd, taking photos with all the on-lookers who asked. Everyone with a camera seemed to want a photo taken with them. If anyone asked me for one I had my reply ready “Why of course, my friend here would love a photo with you”, and then I shuttled off in the other direction.
Back in school some of the kids fell asleep after a hard days playing. We had some food left over so we decided to split it between the ones left. Again, I forgot to pray. I didn’t think it was necessary for snacking, I thought it only applied to full meals. But the students jumped up, got in line and prepared to pray. Problem was some of them wanted the before lunch prayer, as we were about to eat, another pointed out the official lunch was over, and seeing as it was after school time we should say the after school one. One guy was adamant we should say a neutral one, so he offered the Our Father. Crazy thing was, the guy shouting for the Our Father was a Hindu! These kids don’t care, giving thanks is giving thanks. In the end the ‘before lunch prayer’ gang won the argument.
Tags: India, Khasi, Meghalaya, Shillong, Volunteering
cybersusst
Thank you for sharing your adventures! Really interesting blog site. Travel on!
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